


Wind Rising

by naeildo



Category: TWICE (Band)
Genre: Reverse Chronology, reuploaded for posterity
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-08
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:55:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,869
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24068479
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/naeildo/pseuds/naeildo
Summary: The beginning and the end.
Relationships: Im Nayeon/Myoui Mina
Comments: 3
Kudos: 70





	Wind Rising

Mina is wearing a nice cocktail dress, a velvet red that stops just below her knees. Sana had told her she looked stunning all the way from their kitchen to the car, where the taxi driver _ahjusshi_ kept sneaking glances back at them, whether at the way the three of them looked or at the unfamiliarity of the language, Mina doesn't know. Soon they're climbing the steps to the apartment, Mina's fingers cradled loosely in Momo's own. Momo isn't speaking much, and Sana is doing all the talking, and everything is as it should be, Mina thinks, a smile rising to her face.  
  
Sana catches sight of it - she always does, somehow - and slings an arm across Mina's shoulders. They're still tense. It's one of the few parties she's gotten to attend these days, with the selections coming up.  
  
"It's New Years' Eve, Mi-tan," Sana says, right into her ear, and Mina tries to wriggle away, less out of habit and more because she wants to tease Sana, who just pulls her even closer, nuzzling her cheek against Mina's. "Seize the present! Fuck you Mr Myoui!"  
  
Mina's so surprised that she lets out a laugh that sounds almost like a bark, and then Momo is shoving Sana in the side, the both of them stumbling across the foyer, Mina laughing into Sana's shoulder.  
  
  
  
Mina loves when the fireworks go off, suspended in time. She doesn't care much for looking up at them, but there's something about the way the world stops, for a moment. And then there's Nayeon, in the middle of the fray, standing on her tiptoes, dark red hair falling over her shoulders, curling at the ends.  
  
She's the most beautiful girl in the world, Mina thinks, when she turns around. The smile on her face brilliant and bright, only growing more when her eyes find Mina's.  
  
Then, because it has to, because it must, despite everything: the world stutters into motion again.  
  
  
*  
  
  
"That was _amazing_ ," Nayeon says, hand light on Mina's wrist, and there's that _awe_ in her voice that knocks Mina sideways. Nayeon doesn't know how to hide her emotions when it comes to - Mina doesn't want to say _when it comes to her_ , so she doesn't, just sits back down on the couch between Sana and her friend whose name Mina still forgets sometimes. Nayeon's gaze is watchful, and soft, and Mina feels like she might just implode here, on a shitty fake leather couch in the middle of Jeongyeon's too-small living room.  
  
They're in a room full of people. Mina had been wheedled, as she always is, somehow, into performing a ballet routine that she learned when she was fifteen. Mina hasn't stepped foot in a dance studio in years, but all she has to do is point her toes to get the crowd of variably drunk people going wild.  
  
"Wish I had an ultimate party trick too," Nayeon says, later, when she sidles up next to Mina, a soft smile on her face. It's teasing, the tone of her voice, and Mina turns to look at her - the red hair falling in strands over her face, not quite sure if they want to be bangs or tucked behind her ears, but they make her face, her already round cheeks, even softer. Nayeon isn't wearing much makeup today, and the room seems to dull a little around her, like Nayeon is taking the light from everywhere and placing them in Mina's eyes. Her shoulder's pressed against Mina's, the two of them hidden under the dull lights in the corner of the room. Mina's never really been a fan of house parties unless it's with her closest friends, but Nayeon makes things more bearable while Sana's run off to make friends with someone else, even if things are still a little awkward.  
  
Mina shakes her head, then, remembering that Nayeon's still waiting for her to respond. Or not, maybe, the other girl already staring out ahead into the fray. But she hasn't moved to remove herself from the position she's in, slouching against the wall next to Mina. "You have many talents, too," Mina says, softly, sincerely, and her brain dredges up a stray memory of Nayeon in the noraebang, singing a song Mina had never dreamed of selecting in her life. Nayeon laughs. It's so - brash, Mina thinks, and the thought that bubbles up is fond, makes Mina's chest tighten with something she can't name.  
  
Nayeon is looking at her, so carefully and quietly that Mina fears she might stop breathing if she doesn't pay attention. In, out, in, out.  
  
"I'll believe it since it's you," Nayeon says, softly, hands finding Mina's. It's not enough to be anything more than friendly, but Mina still closes her eyes out of instinct, like being so close to Nayeon is dangerous enough.  
  
  
*  
  
  
Nayeon walks her back to the foot of her apartment. The wind is starting to blow haphazardly, sweeping Nayeon's bangs in a thousand different directions, and Mina laughs as she pushes them carefully away from Nayeon's forehead.  
  
"It's playing tricks on me," Nayeon says, giggling, pulling the scarf tighter around her neck. And then Mina's too, for good measure, and Mina stumbles a little closer. The streetlights above them are making their shadows grow and shrink as they walk, and Nayeon starts jumping into Mina's, laughing.  
  
"Minari," Nayeon says, smiling that smile of hers, places two cold hands on Mina's cheeks, and laughs when Mina swats them away. Mina feels like - she might cry, here, now, with Nayeon looking at her, fingers tangled with hers, tucked into Mina's coat pocket.  
  
Mina has to make her rounds at the Hospital tomorrow before sunrise, but maybe she doesn't have to sleep if she can just - stand here. If she can just stand here, forever, and -  
  
"Thank you," Nayeon says, and then seems to run out of words. Presses a kiss to Mina's cheek, and leaves.  
  
  
*  
  
  
There's a big brown dog outside. The breed name in Korean is on the tip of her tongue - it's not a Huskey, but it's something close to that, if she could just -  
  
"Let's be friends," Nayeon says, finally. Her latte is turning cold on the table between them, winter starting to creep up on them now, with little warning. Mina turns to face her again, after staring out at the window.  
  
Mina blinks back at her. Nayeon knows how to read her without needing words, Mina has come to learn, but she thinks the confusion on her face wouldn't need Nayeon's expertise.  
  
"I don't want this to be -" Nayeon brings a hand up to her hair. Cards through it carelessly, but it still falls flatteringly around her face, somehow. "I don't want you to be uncomfortable, but I don't -" Nayeon says, again, determinedly, but she's stumbling all over her words. "I want - I want to be friends. Still. Would that be - is that fine?"  
  
  
*  
  
  
Mina doesn't sleep with her. Because it's a cliche, and there's some respect that she has for the consequences, and for the future, and because she's not drunk enough, even if Nayeon is.  
  
"Warm," Nayeon murmurs, against Mina's neck while Mina is trying to lower her back onto her bed.  
  
"Yes, very warm," Mina indulges her, trying to pry Nayeon's hand off her shirt. Mina should have expected it, somehow, when Nayeon started to cry, but it still makes her chest empty out.  
  
"Minari," Nayeon is saying. Blabbering. "Minari. Minari. Minari," she's gasping, and Mina stops fighting, let's herself blanket Nayeon's body with her own, lets Nayeon wrap her arms around her waist. Presses her nose into Nayeon's shoulder, soft and slow, until Nayeon stops shaking. "Why can't we?" Nayeon says, voice smaller than Mina has ever heard.  
  
Later, when Nayeon falls asleep, Mina has to pull herself off, gently, unfurling Nayeon's fingers from the ruined fabric of her shirt.  
  
  
*  
  
  
"I never really thought it would work out, Minari," Nayeon is saying, and there's a smile in her voice. "I always knew, somehow."  
  
"I do - have -" Mina is saying, and it's all of these things, bundled inside her chest, screaming to get out, that she's fighting against, Nayeon's fingers rubbing soft circles into the back of her hand. She can't look at Nayeon. "I do love -" Mina says, and there's an ache so violent in her chest that she can't finish the sentence, only makes her look down at the floor even more.  
  
Because Nayeon is a dancer who can barely make ends meet. Because Nayeon doesn't work regular hours, and Nayeon doesn't know how to navigate a house that's too big for anyone to really have. Because Nayeon is big, and bright, and glorious. Because the world is horrible, and brutal, and real. Because Nayeon is a girl. Because Mina is a coward and doesn't know how to -  
  
Gentle fingers are nudging at Mina's chin, Nayeon's other hand rubbing up and down Mina's arm.  
  
"I'm sorry," Mina gets out, finally, and it's this moment that she chooses to look at Nayeon. Nayeon, who's already smiling at her, eyes bright.  
  
  
*  
  
  
It's not big. There's no fight, or shouting. Only Mina and Nayeon on the taxi back to her apartment, her father's face flashing behind her eyelids.  
  
  
"Why did you bring her here?" He'd asked in Japanese, voice calm, but the disdain on his face was clear enough. Nayeon had looked quizzically at Mina, their tangled fingers loosening. _Why did you bring her into our home,_ he meant.  
  
Mina had tilted her chin up, because being with Nayeon gave her a kind of foolish bravado, even when her head had started to pound, fingers tightening around Nayeon's. "Why shouldn't I? I want you to meet my -"  
  
"Then it has been a pleasure meeting your friend," he'd said, in Korean, unsmiling. Turned on his heel and disappeared into the study, leaving the two of them outside, standing like children in the middle of the hall. Nayeon's tea hadn't even had the time to turn cold yet.  
  
  
They arrive at Nayeon's apartment five minutes before midnight. There's a moment where Mina's hand hovers over hers, but Nayeon doesn't take it. Nayeon is hurt, Mina knows, even if she doesn't show it, even if she's still smiling so bright when she turns to Mina to say goodnight before slipping out of the car. When she bends down to press a kiss to Mina's shoulder, hand on Mina's in her lap, it feels more like a goodbye than it should.  
  
  
*  
  
  
Nayeon's eyes widen when she spots Mina on the bus. There's a police siren going off somewhere in the background, but it sounds dull and out of focus, eclipsed by the way Nayeon's face has broken out into a goofy smile, her ears peeking out of the hoodie pulled over her head.  
  
"I couldn't find a cab," Mina lies, before Nayeon can ask, make harmless fun of her impossibly rich family, or worse, of Mina taking this bus just because she knew that there was an off-chance that Nayeon would be too.  
  
It's a horrible lie, but Nayeon doesn't catch her out on it.  
  
"I like the bus," Nayeon says brightly instead, swinging her bag off her shoulders and fitting it in the space beside Mina's legs.

Mina's quads are still hurting from the day, and she flinches a bit when Nayeon jostles her legs as she takes a seat beside her. The older girl's eyes widen in concern, and then she's leaning down absentmindedly to rub at the back of Mina's legs, fingers kneading at the knots that've gathered under her skin. But Mina's a different kind of tense now.  
  
She doesn't gasp - not like she wants to, bites it back - but she still makes a noise, soft and strangled, and Nayeon looks up, eyes wide with sudden realization. They haven't... not yet, not when Nayeon is so careful that she isn't somehow taking advantage of Mina, but sometimes Mina feels like they don't even have to, not with the way Nayeon makes her feel like her whole body's on fire sometimes when their fingers only so much as brush.  
  
She draws her hands back into her lap.  
  
"Sorry -"  
  
"It's fine," Mina says, at the same time, but it comes out garbled, as if it was her first week in Seoul and she'd just been spoken over for the nth time, smiling haplessly at a confused patient.  
  
There's a small, pregnant pause that starts to eat at Mina.  
  
"Unnie -"  
  
"I'm in love with you," Nayeon says, suddenly, voice so low that Mina wonders if she misheard. Her hand is curled around Mina's, there's few people around them on the bus, and Nayeon is looking resolutely forward, her jaw tightening. They have their secrets here, in the little corners that fate has carved out for them. Mina's hand shakes. She presses her cheek into Nayeon's shoulder, and looks around, out of instinct. Habit.  
  
"Oh, pray tell, what should a proper girl like me do about that?"  
  
There it is - the reflection of Nayeon's smile, gleaming in the window across from them.  
  
  
*  
  
  
Mina is talking about stars and the composition of galaxies when Nayeon pulls her off the beaten path beside the Han River and kisses her in the dark. It's not a completely secluded place, but enough that no one can make them out unless they're looking really carefully. It's a little disorienting, almost, the feeling, gentle but overwhelming, the way Nayeon always seems to be. And Mina's never been - with a -  
  
Then Nayeon is nipping gently on Mina's bottom lip, and Mina can feel her heart thrum so hard behind her ribs that it might crack her chest open. Nayeon's hands are drifting down the sides of her waist, Mina's own threading through Nayeon's hair, thumbs on the jagged bones of her cheeks.  
  
It's never felt like this - a dizzying, electric feeling, threatening to tear Mina apart, and she - she _wants_. Aches for it.  
  
When Nayeon pulls back, her eyes are warm, bright and heavy under the moonlight. She's breathless.  
  
"What is it?" Mina asks, and stops trying to pull her closer.  
  
Nayeon's made a habit of it by now, the way she strokes Mina's cheek, thumb gentle.

"I'm still trying to believe this is real," Nayeon says, smiling, and Mina shakes her head. Presses her cheek to Nayeon's, and leans back in.  
  
  
*  
  
  
"I used to want to dance too," Mina says, suddenly. It's been a weird, heavy kind of first date, and it even started to rain midway through. All they have now is a cafe with a heater that doesn't quite work, and coffee that tastes like sewer water.  
  
Nayeon's eyes flick up to Mina's face - she lets out a big smile that Mina can't help but notice is brittle around the edges. "What kind?"  
  
"Ballet," Mina says.  
  
"Do you regret it? Not going after that?"  
  
Mina has a good job. She saves lives. "Yes," Mina says, and Nayeon lets out a laugh, tilts her head in a way that Mina can only see her long, long lashes, fluttering with amusement.  
  
"Do you?"  
  
The rain outside is starting to clear. Nayeon cocks her head. Then there's that playful smile on her face again, dancing across her lips. Makes everything roar in Mina's ears.  
  
"There's always so much you're risking," Nayeon says, finally. She's glancing outside, too, now, for the first time, before turning back to Mina, looking at her so intently that it scares her, almost, but mostly makes her want to lean closer, until there's nothing at all between them. "Chasing after the things you love."  
  
  
*  
  
  
"What's a proper girl like you doing in a place like this?" Nayeon says, smiling, and Mina can't help the laugh she lets out, loud and a little uncouth, so much so that Sana turns around to look at her, confused.  
  
Tzuyu's decorated the room in a cotton candy glow, and there's a unicorn hanging from the ceiling. The lights are all on, and there isn't even wine, much less booze, not that Mina's much of a drinker.

They've known of each other long enough, with all the circles they run in, but Nayeon has always been so bright, and Mina has been here, quiet around the edges. Still, there's something about Nayeon's sharp smile tonight that makes Mina want to be impulsive.  
  
"Do you say that to all the pretty girls?"  
  
For all Mina knows, Nayeon could be straight, just making another one of her loud-mouthed jokes, and they'd just drop it - this awkward, fumbling attempt, but Nayeon's smile just grows even wider.  
  
"Just you," Nayeon says, leaning impossibly close. From here, Mina can see the fullness of her cheeks, the scar that runs across her right eyelid. But she doesn't touch her. Mina knows, somehow, drinking in the way Nayeon is staring at her, wide-eyed and wondrous, that she won't. Not until Mina lets her.  
  
You can never spin forever, on your toes. There's a moment, a moment when you feel like flying. And then there's the next one.  
  
Mina doesn't know what it is that makes her raise a tremulous hand to Nayeon's cheek. But it's the way Nayeon leans into it, eyes bright, that brings about the fall.


End file.
